Fall weather can bring a new influx of calls about fruit flies, especially in the Albany, NY area. If you think about the primary source of fruit flies, it makes perfect sense. Fall means harvest seasons; growers and gardeners are picking and processing the last of the season’s fruit and vegetables. Road market’s are everywhere and people are bringing home everything from peaches and apples, to pumpkins.

Customers with fall fruit flies in their homes or business usually get them in one of two ways:

1. The produce they bring inside, whether from a farmers’ market, grocery store or their own garden, may already infested with fruit fly eggs or larvae.

2. Fruit flies that are infesting fruits or vegetables in their yard or a nearby field may find their way inside through windows, doors, or other openings. They can get through ordinary screens. Once inside, they can infest produce and other fermenting materials.

Other factors that add to the severity of fall fruit fly infestations are:

-          Individuals who process, pickle or can produce for winter consumption, or make apple cider are even more likely to attract fruit flies into their home with stockpiled produce and associated vinegary or yeasty odors.

-          When tree fruits and other produce are harvest, the damaged for overripe produce is often left in the garden or field to rot, where it serves as a fruit fly breeding ground…not to mention as a draw for rodents and many other pests.

-          Fruit fly populations have been building all summer through many generation (each generation takes little more than a week), so numbers are at a peak in late summer/fall just in time for harvest.

How do you eliminate fruit flies?

The first step is to eliminate the breeding sites. Discarding overripe produce is easy but may not solve the problem. When fruit flies are breeding elsewhere, deep cleaning to reach places not normally cleaned is especially important. Check sites such as spills in the bottom of garbage cans, drip pans, trash compactors, recycling bins, scummy drains, dirty mop buckets, mop water in crack and crevice and alcoholic bottles. Learn how to create a fruit fly trap.

Until the infestation is eliminated, refrigerating fruits and vegetables, including onions and potatoes is a good idea. Unfortunately fruit flies may win the battle...if they do, give Thomas Pest Services a call. Thomas Pest Services, your Albany pest control provider can certainty assist with your fruit fly problem. 

Source: Tech Letter